Greatest of the Great - 2012

On my birthday several friends and I were having a conversation about the greatest athlete of our lifetime at Frank's Lounge. We were all in our 50s. Larry had seen Ali, Homer claimed for Magic Johnson, AP proposed Andre the Giant, then I said, "Evel Knievel." "No way." Larry shook his head. AP and Homer called me a fool, but I stood by my choice.

Evel Knievel broke over 400 bones broken in the pursuit of aerial excellence, but his most heroic leap was the attempt to clear the Caesar's Palace pool in Las Vegas.

That New Year's Eve in 1967 on New Evel dropped $100 at the blackjack table. He zeroed out his chips, then had one shot of Wild Turkey before exiting the casino to climb on his Triumph Bonneville 650 cc.

Linda Evans filmed the crash at Caesar's pool for the Wide World of Sports. His approach is perfect, but somehow the engine cut out on the ramp. The bike's rear tire caught the receiving ramp. Evel tumbles a football field into the casino. Linda Evans caught every agonizing second. Evel was comasized 29 days.

Next jump.

Houston Astrodome.

19 cars.

Harley 750.

Successful both times.

None better.

Evel Knieval. The Greatest of the Great.

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Much more to come.

Drunk Driving Success

Winter comes early in Russia and a light snow fell on Moscow's Vnukovo Airport two days ago. A snowplow cleared the runway, but failed to leave a clear path for a corporate jet's take-off shortly before midnight. The Dassault Falcon 50 struck the snow removal machine and disintegrated upon impact.

None of the 3-man flight crew and its passenger survived the crash.

The passenger was Christophe De Margerie, CEO of the French oil giant TOTAL.

He was renown for his distinctive mustache and loyalty to Russian oil interests, saying in a July interview that Europe should stop thinking about cutting its dependence on Russian gas and focus instead on making those deliveries safer.

De Margerie, a strong proponent of fracking, had signed a multi-billion Euro contract with Russia to exploit northwest Siberia.

De Margerie also said in that interview that Europe could not live without Russian gas, adding there was no reason to do so.

His family had a history of fascism.

A rich man on his way home to celebrate his triumph of corporate greed at the cost of virgin Earth.

The driver of the snowplow was uninjured in the accident, although authorities stated that he had been drunk at the time.

A state of normalcy for a Russian male, but thereafter Mr. Martynenko's lawyer claimed that the driver suffered from heart problems and didn't drink alcohol. There was less than an inch of snow on the runway and according to a report from BBC Mr. Martynenko told Russia's Channel One TV, "When I lost my bearings I did not notice when I drove out on to the runway. The plane was preparing to take off, and I practically didn't see it or hear it because the machine was running. I didn't even see the lights, I did not see a thing, and then the crash happened."

Police had since arrested a senior airport engineer responsible for snow removal, an air traffic controller trainee and her supervisor, as well as a senior air traffic controller.

None of it makes much sense, but then nothing does when the truth is not the truth, still I applaud the snowplow driver's blow against Big Oil.

Hero of the People in my book, then again I live in the past.

MH370 Flight Terminus / The Southern Ocean

The Roaring 40s roiled the Southern Ocean's landless expanse between Africa's Cape of Good Hope and the western coast of Australia. While the prevailing westerly winds aided sailing ships on the long voyage to Asia, eddies calve from the predominant current to create the most complicated ocean system on the planet and sadly authorities have reported that the lost Malaysia Air flight ended in tragedy in that gigantic maelstrom.

Wreckage has been spotted by satellite.

All crew and passengers are thought to be lost.

The families were crushed by this news as well as the fact that no one can explain what caused the rapid descent over the Gulf of Siam or why the 777 continued to fly east into the unknown.

According to the UK's TELEGRAPH the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington had drawn up an Airworthiness Directive in November, which was triggered by reports of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath a Boeing aircraft's satellite antennae. The FAA directive told airlines to look out for corrosion under the fuselage skin, which could lead to a situation where the fuselage was compromised leading to possible rapid decompression as well as the plane breaking up.

The cost for this check-up was approximately $3100 US.

None were done by Malaysia Air.

Cabin decompression from structural flaws in the fuselage seem to be the likely cause. although Boeing has rejected this theory without further comment.

Get ready for their accusations of 'pilot error'.

As always for corporate entities it's easiest to blame someone who is dead.

The Miracle Of Unconsciousness

Sunday morning Camp and I left his house for breakfast. His daughter was in the back seat. On the way down the dirt drive to the main road we passed the wreck of a Nissan sedan. The chassis was bent in a U and the front end twisted by the accident's centrifugal forces. Tangled wires and strips of metal tailed off the body in all directions. The rear was the only intact part of the car. "That looks like a John Chamberlain sculpture." The American sculptor was famous for his auto-shop masterpieces. "My next-door neighbor had an accident." Camp rode past the totaled vehicle without a glance. "With what? A tank." I looked back at the ruined car. "No, the car went off the road and fell into a ditch." "That's all." I'd never seen a car that destroyed before. "He didn't live, did he?" "He was stuck in the car six hours before anyone found him." "Dead?" "No, not a scratch on him." Camp checked both directions before turning left toward the bakery. "What time was this accident?" I figured midnight after a lot to drink. "No, noon time." Camp kept the car to the speed limit. He had two tickets awaiting judgment at the local traffic court. "Noon? He didn't go to sleep. He was on oxycondins and passed out. He probably had no idea what happened to him until he came out of his stupor." It was the only way that the driver could survive the crash. "How old is he?" "23." "I rest my case." Anyone sober would have died in that wreck once more that if there is a God, then he loves a down freak more than a drunk.